Tenchusatsu,
my rating scheme would apply to the SYSTEM, not the processor. Much like PC Magazine compares actual systems (as opposed to processors like AnandTech or Tom's Hardware), the rating scheme would and should only be used to judge overall system performance.
I think it is a good idea. I don't think this should preclude the hardware site from the testing game. There is no difference between Compaq or Del model XYZ and motherboard A, CPU B, Hard disk C etc.
But the rating systems would have to be set up for components. For example, an online store which lets pick and chose components for a system would need to give you updated scores (of your benchmarks) as you add or change components. To do so, the online box-maker would need to have performance characteristics of all the components that he could plug into a formula, which would calculate the final rating (rather than having to test all the combinations of components that can make up a system.)
The performance characteristics of the components could be lines, curves, arrays, or even simple scalar number. Thinking about this more, in case of a (CPU, Say Pentium Tualatin 1.2 GHz 512K L2), tfor a CPU, the performance number could be a single number.
Well, I don't have this thought through, but the bottom line is that given a set of components with their performance characteristics, you should be able to plug the performance characteristics to a formula which would calculate how fast the system would run your 2 benchmarks. There are some interdependencies that would need to be taken care off. For example a CAS-2 DDR vs. CAS 2.5 DDR performance contribution would be different if they were in Duron system vs. Athlon, etc.
Of course, my scheme is highly idealistic. Cheating would be rampant, and there would be no way to keep all the OEMs honest, especially the small screwdriver shops.
True, but there is a way to prevent cheating. The benchmark would have to downloadable, so the first thing you would do is to download it and run it on a new system if it lives up to what you were sold.
Joe |
